re: Think

EcoSoul - the book

EcoSoul

save the planet and yourself by rethinking your everyday habits

Suzanne's first book is now available in paperback.

I believe a sustainable future for all can only be achieved through aligning one’s actions with one’s values. This book is the manifestation of my own passion for teaching to others what I am learning about making the world a better place. I believe there are a lot of others like me, striving to know what it is one stands for, then striving (though not always succeeding) to act on those beliefs.

EcoSoul hinges on the idea that global environmental crises and personal discontent come from the same source: a disconnect between values and actions.

Good for the planet is good for the soul - align your habits and your values to save the world and your sanity.The premise couldn’t be simpler: happy people live more lightly on the planet. Changing the way we think about our place in the world will change our impact on the environment, and our lives, for the better. EcoSoul is a “why-to,” motivating readers to reduce their environmental impact by recognizing the connection between values and actions, and provides timely suggestions for replacing old habits with a greener way of thinking—and doing. EcoSoul provides distinct ways for the reader to choose their own way of approaching sustainability, through both ways of thinking and ways of doing. Highlights include:

• What it means to live sustainably

• How to apply sustainable principles in your life

• Why what you do every day matters

• How simple changes in your life can have positive global and personal impact

Special features of the book include an exercise for writing a personal green mission statement,

In the early 1990s the environmental movement woke up a new generation of activists. With the Chernobyl nuclear disaster a recent nightmare, and a hole in the ozone layer an undisputed fact, the promise of electric cars became a reality—then mysteriously disappeared. Pundits and talking heads confounded the public debate with conflicting opinions, scientific and otherwise, as to whether or not global warming was real, and if so, what was causing it and how much of a threat was it to our way of life.

Or maybe it was just me waking up. I first became aware of my responsibility as a steward of the environment in the late ‘90s, when a carpet vendor told me that their company was developing a carpet-recycling program.

Some background: my training and entire career has been in commercial interior design. My role is to complete the interior environment of workspaces of all types—law offices, banking and insurance headquarters, research labs, medical clinics, and even hospitals. My working life is full of details about building code requirements, cabinetry components, which flooring or wall material is appropriate, and of course—making it all look good.

Back to my story—

It seemed to be from left field—I had never heard of recycling a carpet, and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would bother… until I thought it through.

Most carpets you see, both residential- and commercial-grade, are made from nylon fibers. I deal mostly with the hard-working kind you find in every office building, miles and miles and miles of it (over two billion pounds produced annually). This type of carpet has been in regular production since the 1950s, and is still going strong. The carpet vendor I mentioned earlier elaborated about how (then and now) nylon carpets made up a very bulky portion of American landfills. I got a very clear image in my mind of all that carpet.

In one year, 14.1 billion square feet of new carpet was installed; that’s equivalent to carpeting the land area of Washington, DC about seven and a half times

In one year, five billion pounds of carpet were sent to landfill, which is equivalent to about 769 Great Pyramids of Giza

Nylon’s best quality as carpet is that it is so incredibly durable. In my industry we joke that nylon carpet will ugly out before it wears out. Nylon is a type of plastic—a synthetic material that replaced wool, in the same way that nylon panty hose (the same plastic) replaced silk in women’s stockings. In fact it’s so durable that it will never break down in any landfill. The only way to make that bulk disappear is through incineration—not common practice for construction waste, and potentially quite toxic given all the additives that make nylon fibers so good at being carpet.

Perhaps the most surprising fact was that I had never thought about it before—I never had to; and technically speaking, I still don’t have to. While I am a part of the process of bringing everything together in the built space, when it comes to products, my job ends with the recommendation. I advise my clients about the best material or product for the intended use, but ultimately they are responsible for it—purchasing it, maintaining it, and eventually getting rid of it.

As it turned out, that moment in time marked the beginning of my re-education. It made me question every other finish and product I specified, and caused me to begin asking manufacturers (of all types) about their impact on the environment, and whether they were trying to make improvements. Interface was that pioneering carpet recycler (working with Dow Chemicals, which makes many types of nylon fibers); Ray Anderson, then CEO of Interface, wrote about his own wake-up call in his book, Mid-Course Correction.

The amazing fact is that in less than ten years from that first program, every major carpet manufacturer had created their own recycling programs as well—no simple feat. Each manufacturer has gone through its own research and development and retooling and reformulating and marketing to make these programs work.

recycling carpet has saved 1.5 billion pounds of carpet from landfill

I love that story because it so clearly shows how one person made a tremendous difference (for the better) in the world—because they acted on their belief. Mr. Anderson realized that it was wrong to make a product that would be a heavy burden on some future unknown people, and he acted accordingly. That is true integrity, and each and every one of us have opportunities every day in our own lives to make every action in keeping with our own values.

Professionals in the building and design industry are leading the current charge in the sustainability movement. Instead of just bringing awareness to the environmental cause like so many inspiring activists before, these folks are creating the means and methods ways to address energy, resource, and pollution issues associated with buildings. Life cycle assessments (for building products), and green building rating systems (for buildings) teach us how to cut waste and toxicity out of the stuff we make and use every day.

This makes perfect sense when you consider the impact the built environment has on the natural environment. Changing the way we build our environment will change our current impact on the environment. The following statistics describe the impact buildings have in the U.S.:

40% primary energy use

72% electricity consumption

39% CO2 emissions

13.6% potable water consumption

Buildings are the top contributor to global CO2 emissions

40% of landfill volume

William McDonough, an architect, and Michael Braungart, a chemist, wrote Cradle to Cradle in 1998. In their book they show us that by changing the way we make things we will change our current impact on the environment. These statistics describe the results of the current way of doing business (in the U.S.):

Poor indoor air quality at home and at work

Municipal smog/ozone alerts occur regularly, across the nation

Ten percent of women in the U.S. have enough mercury in their bloodstream to cause neurological damage in their children

About two-thirds of new chemicals (since 1977) in the EPA’s inventory are secret even to the EPA

Globally, up to thirty-three percent of all deaths and the total global disease burden can be attributed to environmental factors

Just watching the news brings home the fact that our western culture may not be supporting us in our pursuit of happiness. People throughout this country are suffering, often alone, with fear and uncertainty about the future. The statistics below describe our dysfunctional society:

Young children are the fastest-growing market for antidepressants

Obesity rates in adults and children continue to climb

U.S. worker satisfaction is at a twenty-three-year low

Thirty percent of adults experience high stress nearly every day; even higher numbers report high stress once or twice a week

Half the population now says they have too little time for their families

EcoSoul will show you how changing the way we think about our place in the world will change our current impact on the environment—and change our lives.

As you read this book, please be sure to refer to the Sources and Text Notes section. There is more information, sources, and references for all the concepts and tips discussed (organized by page number).

In no particular order of importance, difficulty, or cost, these action items are organized around four broad categories of habits: Purchasing, Toxics, Waste Management, and Influence.

Rethink these habits: Toxics Out

Cleaner ingredients

As Annie Leonard, creator of The Story of Stuff, is fond of saying, “Toxics in, toxics out.” A good rule of thumb is if something is not harmful to people, it won’t be harmful to the environment either. The health and safety of both are intertwined.

Educate yourself about the ingredients that commonly show up in your preferred products. Make changes when you don’t like what you find

Make your own household cleaners or look for those made with natural ingredients. Many essential oils of common herbs and citrus fruit (lavender, pine, mint, lemons, and oranges, just to name a few) are antibacterial and are the inspiration for synthetic versions

Avoid plastic types 3, 6, and 7; these types are the least recyclable, and are most likely to contain synthetic additives, many of which are known or suspected toxics

Avoid chlorine bleach and other harsh chemicals

Learn to cook more from scratch—you’ll enjoy fewer questionable additives, more nutrition, and more control over salt, calories, fats, and portion size compared to processed food

Avoid air fresheners; to clean the air of odor, remove the source and ensure air circulation (open a window, turn on a fan)

Put filters on your showerheads (and tub fillers). Look for filters that capture chlorine, which is especially potent when breathed in as steam

Install an in-line or tap filter at your kitchen sink, and provide metal or glass travel containers for your family. Voila! Your own bottled water

Use HEPA air filters on your air conditioning and heating systems to clean your indoor air of particulates

Avoid formaldehyde in glues, sealants, and finish coatings. Look for the words “formaldehyde free” or “no added urea-formaldehyde” on these products and on wood furniture

Replace or encapsulate existing MDF (medium density fiberboard, also known as particleboard) and other high VOC emitters (kitchen cabinets, “flat pack” furniture, most inexpensive wood-veneer furniture). Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are the the source of well-known odors like “new car” smell and fresh paint. The actual compound being emitted varies, but in this example (MDF), it is the urea formaldehyde: a known carcinogen, asthma trigger, and irritant of skin and lungs. MDF will off-gas for years, but within the first six months of installation is often when VOCs are at their highest levels

Make your home a shoe-less environment; ninety percent of indoor pollutants are tracked in on the bottoms of shoes; if shoe-less isn’t an option, then try walk-off mats

Use a walk-off mat at all outside entrances. Make sure the mat is long enough to allow for effective cleaning (six to eight feet is recommended, considering how wet your local climate may be)

Check your printer against the Australian study of ultrafine particulate pollution emitted from desktop printers to determine which, if any, could be replaced with a less polluting version (toner particulate can be as bad as second hand smoke)

Plant green: there are conflicting reports as to the effectiveness of plants in cleaning indoor air. If no one has allergies or other sensitivities, indoor plants can be beneficial on many levels

Avoid “fragrance”. This generic term on an ingredient list masks a multitude of irritating and toxic chemicals

Avoid stain resistors like Scotchgard, Gore / GoreTex, Teflon, Nanotex, Crypton, Crypton Green. These chemicals are all in the fluorochemical family (which includes PFOA, PFOS, and PFCs), which is persistent and bio-accumulative, and possibly toxic

Be aware that antimicrobials are pesticides; use with caution. Overuse of antimicrobials can lead to the development of “superbugs”—microorganisms that have developed resistance to our typical antidotes, leading to more difficulty in controlling infectious outbreaks, especially in hospitals and schools

Fire retardants are often required by law, so it may be difficult to find mattresses and furniture cushions that do not contain brominated fire retardants (also called PBBs and PBDEs; PCBs, the chlorinated version, were banned in the U.S. in the '70s). Unfortunately there are few chemicals currently known that are without the "side effects" of being persistent (not breaking down in the environment), bioaccumulative (moving up the food chain, where these chemicals have been found in alarming amounts in women's breast milk), disruptive to hormone systems (all mammals), and disruptive to reproductive systems (again, including people). Invest in an organic fabric mattress cover (to encase the chemicals and reduce your exposure) until you are able to replace it completely with a chemical-free product

Nanotechnology shows great promise in medicine, where it makes many medications more effective by allowing them to bypass the body's natural defenses. But imagine bypassing those defenses with chemicals known to be carcinogenic. Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the Environmental Protection Agency currently require any special labeling or testing of nano-ingredients found in consumer products like cosmetics and sunscreens

Have your chimney professionally cleaned regularly, and install filters on other air exhausts. Make sure what you are emitting from your home or office is as clean as possible, and is legal in your area (for example, many regions are banning wood burning due to pollution concerns)

Improve the insulation and weather stripping in your home to reduce the need for wall to wall carpeting and to ensure natural ventilation is taking place only when you want it to. These measures in concert with an attic fan or other whole-house ventilation system will help your house "breathe" properly (which vastly increases your indoor air quality) while improving your heating and cooling costs

Avoid these top four unhealthy / unnecessary ingredients in skin and beauty products: lauryl sulfates (synthetic foaming agents; irritant), parabens (preservatives; allergen, irritant, and possible connection to breast tumors), polyethylene glycol (foaming agent; interferes with natural moisture balance), and fragrance (generic term which can mask many ingredients, some of which may be nerve deadening agents)